The clincher exists in the plot. This is perhaps where the game is most limited by its dedication to classic gaming. Simply put, the game places you in the shoes of your old character, which in the last game was responsible for saving the kingdom of Thaermore from Goblin Invaders. The new plot does, in many ways, what it should have done which is expand on the concepts presented in the original and place them within the context of a larger conflict. Being a fantasy RPG, there was just simply not that much room for growth here. For the multitude of quests that were offered as side missions, and the nonlinear format that your character could follow, I didn’t feel as if the core of the plot matched up to the greatness and detail that was put in the rest of the work. Instead of growing, the plot seemingly trots along with your character based on the decisions you make. Perhaps this is a sign of the times for fantasy writers, but when it comes to resorting to a more traditionalist affair such as this, the plot could have used more development.

Played this months ago, and it indeed is a solid oldschool RPG experience. However, you don't get to build a party so you'll always play with one guy/chick.

One of the fun things I remember was the Alchemy. There are so many ingredients, and a great deal of recipes, but the number of possible combinations is pretty staggering, iirc. That being said, you can either wait to get access to alchemists, who sell recipes, OR you could start experimenting yourself, since you don't actually need the recipes! I tried this a couple of times, and subsequently got couple of minor explosions as result, with some hitpoint loss… idk why but it's the cheap lulz like that that are most memorable.

Who knows, maybe someone out there manages to accidentally turn himself invisible, or gets a superb strength boost due to such experimentation. I find the sheer possibility of something like that happening highly amusing. The effects of potions are unknown by default, so you either have to drink them or possess the skill to identify them to learn their effects. Or have them identified by a merchant, iirc.

Again, do keep it in mind that I played the game months ago, so patches, or my memory might have affected things.

Saxon1974

May 10th, 2011 21:09

Love this Indy studio. I sure hope it sticks around a while.

Just got some time to play this the last few days and im totally hooked. My only complaint so far is that some of the areas are a bit empty and there is only one large town. I think that's acceptable given basically 1 guy built this game.

With most modern games I get bored fairly quickly but this one has kept me enthralled from the beginning until now at about 20 hours of play.

The dev said with book 3 that he was going to spend the majority of dev time on making the world populated with interesting stuff….very glad to hear that…not that book 2 doesn't have anything interesting it does, just some areas could use more stuff.

Dasale

May 11th, 2011 01:55

Book 2 borrowed too many story/plot elements from Book 1, it creates a strange feeling of déjà vu. Also Book 2 is dumbed down in a way because it lost the Hardcore Roguelike feeling Book 1 had in first parts. That point change a lot the mood of the beginning of Book 2 when compared to Book 1, Book 1 had a more intriguing and mystery mood in first parts. To compensate Book 2 added drink and food system. It's stuff I would have think pointless and even boring but in practice it works well during the beginning. but it's only during the beginning because later you could just learn spells to solve the problem and then make this design pointless. That's a quite strange design decision because anyway those food and drink elements was optional.

But the engine is better, there's a bit more elements, and the writing has improved even if it still a bit average. So after first parts, Book 2 grows in interest well.

In no way I'll skip Book 3 and I also have hope in that studio, I just hope they won't make some bad decisions making them close, nor they just give up for some reason. That would be great if for their next series they switch to Party TB RPG, mm and I just got a nice idea, why not have some companions?

rune_74

May 11th, 2011 03:32

I know a lot of what is planned by the studio, and I think a lot of you will not be dissapointed.

Melvil

May 11th, 2011 03:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by rune_74
(Post 1061068550)

I know a lot of what is planned by the studio, and I think a lot of you will not be dissapointed.

such as? details!

rune_74

May 11th, 2011 05:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melvil
(Post 1061068552)

such as? details!

Such as I promise to tell you guys more when Thomas agrees to an interview and lets his plans out, it is no secret he is working on a scifi game now.

Saxon1974

May 11th, 2011 07:03

I'm not that excited about a scifi RPG honestly…normally I probably wouldn't play it but since its Basilisk I probably will.

I can only remember playing a couple in the past; Mines of Titan, Battletech and seems like there was another that I liked but cant remember the name.

I just hope a scifi game can draw enough interest for it to sell for them.

Dasale

May 11th, 2011 23:26

The "problem" with scifi is it's a higher level challenge. Also that doesn't say much and even it opens even more the amount of possible. Well it's not for tomorrow and anyway there's Book 3 first.